Emmys: ‘Shogun’ sets new record, ‘Hacks’ pulls off upset over ‘The Bear’
The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards are handed out tonight during a live ceremony on ABC hosted by father-and-son Emmy winners Eugene Levy and Dan Levy. You can follow along with the complete winners list here, and scroll down for my minute-by-minute report and analysis of the winners as they’re announced. Who won? Who lost? Who upset? Who made history? And how did the night compare to the predictions of thousands of Gold Derby users?
The first story to watch is how “Shōgun” will perform. The FX historical drama set in feudal Japan led the nominations with 25, and it has actually already won most of them. At last weekend’s Creative Arts Awards, which highlighted crafts and guest performances, the series prevailed 14 times. That set a new record for the most prizes ever won by a program in a single year. The record was previously held by the limited series “John Adams,” which won 13 times in 2008. And before “Shōgun” the most awarded drama series in one season was the epic fantasy “Game of Thrones,” which collected 12 trophies on three different occasions. So any of its six categories that “Shōgun” wins tonight will be icing on the cake. Suffice it to say it’s the overwhelming favorite to take Best Drama Series.
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Meanwhile, FX’s restaurant dramedy “The Bear” is looking to repeat with a second straight victory for Best Comedy Series, and it’s also looking to make history. The most awards ever won by a comedy in a single year was 10 (“The Bear” set that record just last year). At the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend, “The Bear” was awarded seven times, so if it wins four of its seven categories tonight it will surpass itself in the record books. There might be a lot of hardware at the FX party when all is said and done.
In longform categories, Netflix’s “Baby Reindeer” is considered the front-runner for Best Limited Series, especially after key Creative Arts wins for its casting and picture editing. But with 11 total nominations it’s not the most dominant program in its category (that would be “True Detective: Night Country” with 19 noms), and it wasn’t the biggest winner at Creative Arts (that would be “Ripley” with three). So there’s still some suspense there, as there is in a number of other categories. Read on to find out about all of them as the evening progresses.
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8:12pm — BEST COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTOR — Ebon Moss-Bachrach wins for the second year in a row for “The Bear” as was widely predicted by Gold Derby’s users. This brings the show to eight Emmys for the year following its seven victories at the Creative Arts Awards. Read on here for more on the significance of his victory
8:16pm — BEST DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTOR — Billy Crudup wins for “The Morning Show” in what turned out to be a bit of a surprise. Crudup was initially the front-runner, having previously won the award in 2020, but after “Shōgun’s” Creative Arts dominance, many of us — myself included — switched to Tadanobu Asano. In the end Asano took the lead in our odds, but Crudup prevailed anyway, hanging “Shōgun” one of its few losses this year.
8:22pm — BEST COMEDY ACTOR — Jeremy Allen White prevails for the second year in a row for “The Bear.” It’s foolish to call anything at the Emmys a foregone conclusion, but this was close to it. White has won three SAG Awards, two Critics Choice Awards and two Golden Globes, hardly losing anything. “The Bear” is now up to nine victories for the year, one shy of its 2023 record. More on his victory here.
8:25pm — BEST COMEDY SUPPORTING ACTRESS — Upset! Liza Colon-Zayas wins for “The Bear,” outpacing front-runner Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”), not to mention Meryl Streep (“Only Murders in the Building”) and Carol Burnett (“Palm Royale”). This is a worrying sign for Jean Smart (“Hacks”), who is up against “The Bear” leading lady Ayo Edebiri. And it’s also a great sign for “The Bear” across the board. It has now won 10 Emmys this year, tying its 2023 record.
8:34pm — BEST DRAMA SUPPORTING ACTRESS — Gold Derby correctly called that Elizabeth Debicki would win this award for “The Crown” on her second try. This was widely predicted after her victories at the Golden Globe, Critics Choice, and SAG Awards. Debicki is the second actor nominated for playing Princess Diana on “The Crown,” following 2021 Best Drama Actress contender Emma Corrin.
8:39pm — BEST COMEDY ACTRESS — Despite her co-star missing out to a star of “The Bear,” Jean Smart continues her winning streak for “Hacks,” as was predicted by our odds. This is her third win for the show (she’s undefeated for this role) and her sixth win overall. She has still never lost at the Emmys when nominated in a comedy category. This means “The Bear” narrowly misses a historic clean sweep of acting categories. No show has ever gone six-for-six. “The Bear” “only” went five-for-six.
8:47pm — BEST COMPETITION SERIES — “The Traitors” prevails, ending the winning streak of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which won this category for five of the last six years. This was a real nail-biter. “RuPaul” had the impressive winning streak, but “The Traitor” host Alan Cumming upset RuPaul Charles for Best Reality Host. In the end, we had given “Drag Race” the slight edge, so this was a bit of a surprise to many of us.
8:52pm — BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SUPPORTING ACTRESS — Jessica Gunning wins for “Baby Reindeer” in another race that seemed set in stone, at least judging from our odds. She raced to the top of our odds after her limited series premiered on Netflix, and she never looked back. If “Baby Raindeer” were a movie, I think Gunning would have won the Oscar too.
8:59pm — BEST SCRIPTED VARIETY SERIES — “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” takes this award, no surprise there. There was a little suspense when “Saturday Night Live” won six Creative Arts Emmys, but not much. “Last Week Tonight” won the all-important writing award, which is much more indicative of the likely winner in this category. “Last Week Tonight” has now won the top program award nine years in a row.
9:05pm — BEST VARIETY SPECIAL WRITING — Alex Edelman wins for “Just for Us” on his first nomination. He was the front-runner, but after “The Oscars” won Best Variety Special (Live) for the first time ever, we thought it had a strong chance of upsetting.
9:13pm — BEST MOVIE/LIMITED DIRECTING — Steven Zaillian wins for directing “Ripley” in its entirety, besting front-runner “Baby Reindeer” for “Episode 4.” It has happened on occasion that a limited series wins for a director who helmed the whole project over directors who presided over a single episode. Consider the past upsets for “Unorthodox” and “The Night Manager.” At Creative Arts, “Ripley” also won for its visual effects, sound and cinematography, so the series has now won four prizes.
9:17pm — BEST COMEDY WRITING — “Hacks” wins for the episode “Bulletproof.” This was another upset. “The Bear” was the overwhelming favorite for the episode “Fishes,” which already won prizes for guest stars Jon Bernthal and Jamie Lee Curtis. That “Bear” episode is also nominated for directing against another episode of “The Bear,” so maybe “Hacks” will benefit from a vote split there. And perhaps hope is still alive for “Hacks” in Best Comedy Series.
9:24pm — BEST TALK SERIES — “The Daily Show” takes the prize, as we expected. The show previously won 11 times when Jon Stewart was the regular host and once when Trevor Noah was the regular host. This was the show’s first victory with a rotating group of hosts, which means that Stewart and his fellow news team hosts Ronny Chieng, Jordan Klepper, Michael Kosta, Desi Lydic and Dulce Sloan are also Emmy winners.
9:33pm — BEST MOVIE/LIMITED SUPPORTING ACTOR — Lamorne Morris takes this prize for “Fargo,” and if you saw that coming, congratulations! He ranked dead last in our odds, with literally only 16 people out of thousands betting on this upset. This category was pretty wide open, with the top contenders not having much support for their limited series as a whole. What’s especially interesting is that this is the first acting Emmy ever for the “Fargo” after five seasons of the anthology series.
9:38pm — BEST DRAMA WRITING — Will Smith prevails for “Slow Horses,” yet another upset over “Shōgun,” but “Shōgun” had two episodes nominated, “Anjin” and “Crimson Sky,” which may have split votes. “Slow Horses” ranked second in our odds despite the fact that the British spy drama was snubbed entirely by the Emmys for its first and second seasons. Smith previously won two Emmys for Best Comedy Series as a producer of “Veep.”
9:44pm — BEST MOVIE/LIMITED WRITING — Front-runner “Baby Reindeer” wins the first of what could be three Emmys for Richard Gadd. He’s also up for Best Movie/Limited Actor and Best Limited Series tonight. Gadd was awarded for scripting the entire series, which was inspired by his own experience of being stalked.
9:49pm — BEST COMEDY DIRECTING — Christopher Storer wins for helming the “Fishes” episode of the bear, overcoming a vote split against Ramy Youssef, who directed the “Honeydew” episode of “The Bear.” He was the favorite to prevail, but this is the first time he has been able to accept an award in person at the Emmys. Last year when “The Bear” swept he was absent from the ceremony.
10:17pm — BEST DRAMA DIRECTING — Frederick E.O. Toye prevails for the “Shōgun” episode “Crimson Sky.” It’s the first victory for the director. Perhaps surprisingly, this is the show’s first win of the night after surprise losses in Best Drama Writing and Best Drama Supporting Actor. That brings the show to 15 Emmys for the year. Not too shabby.
10:36pm — BEST MOVIE/LIMITED ACTOR — Richard Gadd wins for “Baby Reindeer,” his second of three possible victories tonight. He says he wasn’t expecting this one, but we were. He was the front-runner in our odds, though I wondered if maybe Andrew Scott had a shot given how well “Ripley” has done in general.
10:38pm — BEST MOVIE/LIMITED ACTRESS — Jodie Foster wins for “True Detective: Night Country.” If you can believe it, this is the first win of her career. It’s also the first and probably only win for “True Detective” out of 19 nominations. It was shut out at the Creative Arts Awards, so things were looking possibly dicey for Foster in this race. She faced tough competition, especially from Brie Larson (“Lessons in Chemistry”) and Juno Temple (“Fargo”).
10:41pm — BEST LIMITED SERIES — “Baby Reindeer” completes its romp through the Emmys by claiming this category, as expected. It had 11 nominations overall and won six of them, including four tonight and two at Creative Arts.
10:48pm — BEST DRAMA ACTOR — Hiroyuki Sanada prevails for his performance in “Shōgun.” That’s the 16th Emmy for the show this year and the first Emmy ever for the veteran actor. We were predicting his victory, but Oscar winner Gary Oldman was a serious threat for “Slow Horses,” especially after that surprise writing win for “Slow Horses.”
10:52pm — BEST DRAMA ACTRESS — Anna Sawai takes the award for “Shōgun.” That’s number-17 for the show and the first for the actress. She rise up the ranks in our odds when it was announced that the series would be competing as a drama instead of as a limited series. She eventually overtook Jennifer Aniston (“The Morning Show”) and Imelda Staunton (“The Crown”) in our odds. It does, however, mean that Staunton is the only portrayer of Queen Elizabeth II not to win an Emmy for the role.
11:00pm — BEST DRAMA SERIES — “Shōgun” wins — as if it could have been anything else. It was far and away the favorite in our odds, and after winning 14 times at the Creative Arts Awards it seemed downright unbeatable. Indeed it was. The four awards it claimed tonight bring its total to 18, which shatters the old “John Adams” and “Game of Thrones” records.
11:06pm — BEST COMEDY SERIES — Holy smokes! “Hacks” wins for the first time for its third season, upsetting “The Bear” despite “The Bear” winning a record 11 Emmy this year, more than any other comedy ever in a single season. I wonder if “The Bear’s” victory last year caused a backlash. Every other commentary about the show has been about its questionable categorization as a comedy — Eugene Levy and Dan Levy even made a joke about it in their monologue. Indeed, dramedies rarely win for Best Comedy Series — just “Ally McBeal” and “The Bear” have accomplished the feat. When it comes to comedy, Emmy voters really do prefer to laugh.
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